Photo: Netflix
A government-owned Egyptian broadcaster has announced that it will be producing its own Cleopatra doc after a Netflix series casted a Black actress to portray the ruler, NBC News reports.
Controversy has loomed over the Netflix docuseries "African Queens," which began streaming on Wednesday (May 10), since the trailer dropped last month. Produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, the series stars Adele James portraying Cleopatra with African roots.
However, a number of Egyptian academics have slammed Netflix for allegedly falsifying Egypt's history, arguing that Cleopatra was of European descent and not Black.
The Al Wathaeqya channel recently announced the start of production for a documentary based on the true story of Cleopatra. The Egyptian broadcaster said the doc will be backed by the “utmost levels” of research and accuracy.
Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the government entity in charge of heritage, wrote on Twitter that “Statues of Queen Cleopatra confirm that she had Hellenistic (Greek) features, distinguished by light skin, a drawn-out nose, and thin lips.”
An Egyptian lawyer has also filed a lawsuit against Netflix, calling for the company to be shut down in Egypt and for the show's creators to be penalized.
Tina Gharavi, the show’s director, previously responded to the controversy in a statement to Variety.
“Why do some people need Cleopatra to be white?” Gharavi said last month. “Perhaps it’s not just that I’ve directed a series that portrays Cleopatra as Black, but that I have asked Egyptians to see themselves as Africans, and they are furious at me for that.”
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